Fried Chicken is the first in a series by John Edge
that explores different American foods. Or at least those foods that
Americans claim as their own. And this book combines a little bit of
history with cookbook and food travel writing.
Fried Chicken
explores all the fried chicken of the regions. Southern to Ohio to New
York's chicken wings to out on the west coast in Seattle. In each area,
he details the history of the area and fried chicken and then goes on
to explore a restaurant or two in the area. He lists out the merits (or
downfalls) of each one. And at the end of the section he includes a
recipe that's supposed to represent the fried chicken of the area.
This
is about food, not people. But there are some people that he focuses
on. Mainly the cooks, who all seem to be characters of their own sort.
But one thing ties them together, their love of food. And Edge seems
to take great love in eating the food he travels all over to try. I
especially liked the two ladies who worked at an inn and had for over
fifty years, just like their mother before them. They were the most
endearing story in the whole book.
As for the readability of the
book, I didn't really like it. It was too jumbled for my tastes. I
liked the history, the recipes and the reviews of different places, but
each chapter was way too short to really get the point across. We were
reading about wings in New York when way too soon we were down in
Tennessee learning about hot chicken. It was just little snippets of
everything mashed together. And while some of it was interesting, it
just didn't feel thorough. But it was a quick read.
I'll still
read more of the series because I like anything involving food. And
there were some neat stories in this one. But I think he could have
really made this into something special. Although he did make me want
to infuse honey with rosemary.
Fried Chicken: An American Story
Copyright 2004
180 pages
No comments:
Post a Comment